This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 from an application for METHOD FOR CONSTRUCTING AND CONTROLLING A PRIVATE LINE BY MEANS OF A SWITCHED VIRTUAL CIRCUIT IN AN ATM NETWORK earlier filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office on the 8th of Apr. 1998 and there duly assigned Ser. No. 12401/1998.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for constructing and managing a private communication line for a user terminal using a switched virtual circuit in an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally an ATM network includes a permanent virtual circuit (PVC) for allocating a fixed channel to a user terminal, and a switched virtual circuit (SVC) connected to the user terminal on the basis of a connection demand, the two circuits being complementarily used. In this case, the user terminal usually uses the SVC to transmit and receive data, and therefore, in order to obtain a private service line, the user must request setting of it by the operator of a telephone exchange office or network control center by calling through a public switched telephone network (PSTN). Then, the operator operates the work station controlling the ATM network connected to the user terminal to check whether its link bandwidth may be allocated to the user terminal. If there remains a portion of the link bandwidth to allow for the user""s demand, he sets the PVC by operating the workstation. Thereafter, he notifies the user of the setting by telephone, so that the user may use the PVC. Thus, in order to receive the PVC of the ATM network, the user must call up the operator of the ATM network system through the PSTN. This also requires the operator to control private line services according to the user""s demand, degrading the efficiency of controlling the PVC.
The following patents disclose features in common with the present invention but do not teach or suggest the specifically recited technique for constructing and controlling a private line using a switched virtual circuit in an ATM network: U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,068 to Daniel et al, entitled ATM COMMUNICATION SYSTEM INTERCONNECT/TERMINATION UNIT, U.S. Pat. No. 5,854,789 to Lesch et al., entitled ATM COMMUNICATION SYSTEM WITH A MODULAR STRUCTURE AND COMMUNICATION MODULES, U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,396 to Moritomo et al., entitled COMMUNICATION METHOD, TRANSMISSION APPARATUS, RECEPTION APPARATUS, AND TRANSMISSION LINE BANDWIDTH CONTROL APPARATUS FOR PVC CONNECTION TYPE SWITCHED NETWORK, U.S. Pat. No. 5,886,982 to Kozaki et al., entitled ATM SWITCHING SYSTEM AND CELL CONTROL METHOD, U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,698 to Kozaki et al., entitled ATM SWITCHING SYSTEM AND CELL CONTROL METHOD, U.S. Pat. No. 5,631,903 to Dianda et al., entitled TELECOMMUNICATIONS SIGNALING ARRANGEMENTS FOR TERMINALS WITHOUT SIGNALING CAPABILITY, U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,952 TO Bernstein et al., entitled ADAPTIVE VCP CONTROL IN INTEGRATED SERVICES NETWORKS, U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,884 to Robrock II, entitled INTELLIGENT BROAD BAND COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND METHOD EMPLOYING FAST-PACKET SWITCHES, U.S. Pat. No. 5,048,087 to Trbovich et al., entitled KEY MANAGEMENT FOR ENCRYPTED PACKET BASED NETWORKS, U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,780 to Brearley, entitled METHOD OF OPERATING A PACKET SWITCHING NETWORK, U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,262 to Harshavardhana, entitled APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DETECTING AND ELIMINATING CALL LOOPING IN A NODE-BY NODE ROUTING NETWORK, U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,804 to Trbovich et al., entitled KEY MANAGEMENT FOR ENCRYPTED PACKET BASED NETWORKS, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,781,529 to Liang et al., entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ROUTING ATM SWITCHED VIRTUAL CIRCUIT CALLS.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of obtaining private line service only through an ATM network without using a PSTN.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a communication system comprising a PVC control server for automatically controlling the PVC in an ATM network.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a communication system for allocating a PVC to a user terminal connected through an ATM network interface to an ATM network comprises: a PVC control server connected through an ATM interface to the ATM network; a switching system disposed in the ATM network for connecting the user terminal to the PVC control server through an SVC according to a virtual path identifier (VPI) and virtual channel identifier (VCI) generated by the user terminal; and an operator controlled workstation connected to the switching system for checking the state of the switching system and for generating a signal representing the acceptance or rejection of the user terminal""s demand on the PVC to the PVC control server upon receiving PVC demand data from the user terminal through the PVC control server, the acceptance or rejection signal being transferred through the SVC to the user terminal.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method of allocating the PVC to the user terminal in a communication system as described above comprises the steps of: demanding a connection to the ATM network by the user terminal generating a predetermined VPI and VCI through a signal channel; connecting the user terminal to the PVC control server in response to the VPI and VCI; sending a connection signal and initial data from the PVC control server to the user terminal; displaying the initial data on the user terminal; sending the PVC demand data to the PVC control server; transferring the PVC demand data to the operator controlled workstation for checking the switching system and for generating the acceptance or rejection signal transferred to the user terminal; and shifting the connection of the user terminal to the PVC upon receiving the acceptance signal.
The present invention will now be described more specifically with reference to the drawings attached only by of example.